Poll: Bernie Sanders is the favorite to win the Nevada caucuses
What would a victory mean for the front runner? Fox News contributor Liz Peek weighs in.
The 2020 presidential election will split the Democratic Party in a way that the Republican Party has never, Stanford University professor and author Victor Davis Hanson predicted Thursday.
In a wide-ranging interview on host Bill Hemmer's "Hemmertime" podcast, Hanson said that during Wednesday's ninth presidential debate in Las Vegas, Nevada, Democrats should have gone for front-runner Sanders' jugular instead of billionaire Mike Bloomberg who was making his onstage debut.
"Democrats should have been going after Bernie Sanders because he poses an existential threat to the Democratic Party," he said.
"I mean, we talk about the Republican fractures and Never-Trumpers. But, Donald Trump ran on ... essentially a Reaganesque agenda: conservative judges, tax reform, more energy. ... Even the thing with China -- get tough with China -- was nationalistic," Hanson continued.
"But Sanders," he notes is "not running on anything remotely similar to what Bill Clinton embodied or even Barack Obama. This is a radically socialist agenda that will split the Democratic Party in a way the Republican Party has never fractured."
LIZ PEEK: BERNIE SANDERS IS BREAKING THROUGH THE DEMOCRATS' TWO 'FIREWALLS'
Furthermore, numbers show the Democratic race is increasingly neck-and-neck between the former three-term New York City mayor and the millionaire Democratic socialist.
The RealClearPolitics average and a new 8 News Now/Emerson College poll released ahead of Saturday's Nevada caucuses show Sanders continues to emerge the clear front-runner after strong showings in Iowa and New Hampshire.
Sanders soars above the pack at 30.4 percent. In tow, former South Bend, Ind., mayor Pete Buttigieg follows with 16.9 percent, former Vice President Joe Biden at 16.1 percent, Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren with 12.1 percent and Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar trailing with only 11 percent.
Bloomberg was not included in the poll because he is not listed as a candidate on the Nevada caucus form.
In addition, Hanson pointed out that despite all of Bloomberg's $400 million spent on a massive ad campaign, he's still coming in behind Sanders.
"Bloomberg was supposedly going to 'save' the Democrats and Sanders because he was going to win the election by peeling off suburban and independent women," Hanson explained.
Bloomberg, as a "big city" mayor, was supposed to know how to "get along" with minority voters.
But, in the wake of blowback from newly unearthed controversial comments, Bloomberg has "nullified all of those advantages," said Hanson.
"So, you can get the impression that this train is going over the cliff and they can't stop it. Unless, you know, at times Bernie doesn't look healthy," he told Hemmer.
Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., speaks during a Democratic presidential primary debate Wednesday, Feb. 19, 2020, in Las Vegas, hosted by NBC News and MSNBC. (AP Photo/John Locher)
Hanson said he agreed that Bernie was a front-runner but noted that it's a "little bit like 2016" -- in the way that the president was a front-runner.
"People kept saying, 'Well, he has never gotten the majority of all of the primary aggregate vote,'" he remarked.
"Bernie Sanders is authentic. He doesn't change that Brooklyn accent. He doesn't change his arms. You put him anywhere in the world. He's the old socialist from Vermont," said Davis.
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"So, one of the reasons that he's doing well is the same reason that Trump is, well, he's authentically somebody. And Biden and Warren change their identities, their race? Mayor Pete has been all over the map depending on the polls," he concluded. "But, Bernie is right there as a hardcore socialist. He's unapologetic and he never retracts or apologized for his prior positions -- just the way Trump is."
Fox News' special coverage of the Nevada caucuses begins Saturday at 4 p.m. ET.
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